Former NY environmental official Robert Flacke has died

Updated
2:35 pm CST, Saturday, November 10, 2018

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. (AP) — Robert Flacke, who served as chairman of the Adirondack Park Agency and later was appointed commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, has died at his home in Lake George. He was 85.

Publicist Mark Behan, the family's spokesman, says Flacke died Saturday after a period of declining health.

Flacke was appointed APA chairman in 1975 when the new agency's land-use policies had stirred the ire of property owners and local officials in the Adirondacks. He was appointed DEC commissioner in 1979.

As DEC commissioner, Flacke oversaw a state management plan for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid and pressed for creation of the Olympic Regional Development Authority.

At DEC, he created the environmental crimes division, oversaw state cleanup of Love Canal and led an expansion of campgrounds and snowmobile trails.